Ideal Leadership in Head Start Programs

Authors

  • Sandra E. Gonzalez

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55370/hsdialog.v17i4.296

Keywords:

Head Start, Leadership, Qualitative Research

Abstract

The field of Early Childhood Education (ECE) has risen to the top of the national educational agenda as a way to overcome the achievement gap and assure that all children learn.  With increased recognition comes greater accountability.  The field of ECE, particularly Head Start is under scrutiny to produce measureable results.  Leadership is crucial to assure both commitment to the holistic goals of ECE and the requirements of accountability.   The first step is to determine the views of those who know best, those who are working closely with children. The purpose of this paper is to report research on how current Head Start directors and teachers define effective leadership practices and strategies. These practices will help leaders and aspiring leaders in ECE settings to be able to motivate teachers and gain the necessary tools to lead in a time of measureable results.

Author Biography

Sandra E. Gonzalez

Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Gonzalez has an extensive background in both child development and special education with over 15 years of experience of working in early childhood education (including Early Head Start and Head Start prorgams) settings including oversight, coordination and management. Dr. Gonzalez has a doctorate in Educational Leadership, Master’s in Psychology, Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology, Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences and a minor in education. Sandra’s work experience includes hands-on direct services with children, coordination of services and oversight of early childhood education programs. In addition, Sandra is also an adjunct faculty member and has also conducted several presentations, workshops, webinars and trainings on effective leadership in early childhood education and other child development topics.

Downloads

Published

2015-02-25

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 4

Section

Research-to-Practice Summaries

License

This Agreement (the Agreement) is made by and between the authors and the HS Dialog Editorial Team.

Author Agreement

By submitting the research article to HS Dialog, I acknowledge it may be published by the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Author(s) certify that:

  1. Warranties:
    1. Authors are legally authorized and possesses full power and authority on behalf of co-authors to enter into this Agreement.
    2. Author warrants, on behalf of all article authors, that:
    3. The article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights;
    4. The named authors are the sole author(s) of the article. Any co-author not signing this Agreement personally has granted full authority to the main author and agree to enter into this agreement of his/her behalf and to gran the following rights to HS Dialog.
    5. The article contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract.

II.Copyright

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Author(s) shall retain copyright to the article but grant the Journal right of first publication, and the irrevocable right to perpetually disseminate the article as part of the Journal subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Beginning one year after the date of formal publication of the article, Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work and subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), subject to a proper acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal: This article was originally published in HS Dialog (Vol., Issue, Year).

III. Indemnification.

Author shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Journal from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, expenses (including attorney’s fees and expert costs, penalties, fees, if any arising from enforcement of this Agreement and/or related to claims of infringement of copyrights or proprietary rights allegedly contained in the Article, or resulting from a claim of defamation, obscenity, or invasion of privacy based upon or arising out of the publication of the Article or any other breach of warranty as set forth in No. 1.